Ceruleana Opener
Previous storyline: Mirrorwater Ceruleana by CupcakeTrap Garen scowled. “I can’t believe they measure this in numbers.” He shoved the parchment down the table, away from himself. Lux, sitting on the other side of the table, picked it up and blinked her eyes wide. “I can’t believe the number is negative sixteen!” The Council at last determined the victor of the Mirrorwater competition: the combined might of the Freljord had overthrown the mightiest nations of Runeterra on the Fields of Justice. Per the agreement, a third of the mirrorwater went to each of the three recognized subfactions of the Freljord: a third to Avarosa, a third to the Winter’s Claw, and a third to the troll tribes unified under Trundle. The Avarosans shaped the mirrorwater into a sorcerous castle of living ice to defend their realm. The ice was hard as steel, gleaming silver-blue, and where it was broken it would mend itself in minutes. The arctic winds racing through its jagged parapets shrieked strange star-songs into the night sky whence the mirrorwater came. The warriors of the Winter’s Claw forged the mirrorwater into armor and weapons of great power. They armed themselves for battle and stood poised to strike out again in conquest. As for the troll tribes, it’s said that Trundle had the mirrorwater decanted into frost elixirs that, shared among the troll tribes, mingled with the tribes’ bloodlines to strengthen the entire troll race. Trundle, of course, upheld his part of his bargain with Lissandra, and delivered a measure of the mirrorwater to her, in secret. A few scholars here and there quietly protested that no one seemed interested anymore in determining just what this “mirrorwater” was, or what it might be doing to Runeterra, a world that had once already been brought to the brink of destruction by magic. Another major dispute soon came to the League of Legends for resolution. For weeks, mages across Valoran had reported haunting visions of something rising up from the cold sea. Soon after, seafarers reported the discovery of a new island off the northwestern coast of Valoran. The soil glittered blue with significant quantities of some gemlike mineral, and it rested atop a foundation of silver-blue ice. Unsure what to call it, but suddenly needing to discuss it, scholars and cartographers settled on a painfully obvious name for a newly discovered island in the middle of the ocean: Ceruleana. League surveyors were quickly dispatched to Ceruleana to investigate. Several of the more magically sensitive among them, including the Summoners, reported bizarre dreams and eerily lucid hallucinations while on the island. The sensation was above all one of overwhelming power, but it was also clear that there was something dark, something evil, something dangerous about the magics that had thrust this island up from the ocean. The major states — Demacia, Ionia, the Freljord tribes, Noxus, and Piltover — swiftly laid claim to Ceruleana. Demacia seeks to exorcise the isle of its dark magics and turn its power toward good. Ionia perceives its emergence as a disturbance in the natural balance, and the wild magical energies as a sign of that disturbance. It seeks to channel and balance this energy and restore Runeterra to equilibrium, before more damage is done. The tribes of the Freljord each desire to conquer Ceruleana … and they also want to find out what connection it has to the mirrorwater and the Freljord. Noxus seeks to take control of Ceruleana and harness its power, “dark” or otherwise. Piltover is concerned that anyone else getting hold of it would disturb the geopolitical balance, and wants to cordon it off for research. Although Ceruleana remains a mystery, one striking discovery stands out: it rests along a leyline that cuts through the Freljord, and indeed through the very heart of the Avarosan castle. And on the other end of the leyline, out beyond the cold sea … The Council’s emissaries and surveyors investigating Ceruleana soon encountered another delegation: a legion of the dead riding from the Shadow Isles to lay their claim, with Hecarim at their fore. And so the Council has recognized the powers and principalities of the Shadow Isles in the dispute over Ceruleana. Next Update: Voices Wake Us and We Drown